French
frivolité,
Finnish sukkulapitsi
means
'shuttle
lace'.
Schiffchenarbeit
in German 'the work of the little boat'.
The
'shuttle', makouk
is Turkish, or maybe mekik,
for Turkish I don't speak.
India's
tattie
meaning 'mat', like those doilies we make.
in
Italian it's occhi
meaning 'little eye' referring to the rings.
Icelandic
taeta
meaning
'little
pieces of wool combings, to knot, to pick up'.
Originally
tatting was made in little bits
painstakingly
sewn together with a needle.
In
America it's called tatting
which probably came
from
the old English tat
to 'entangle or weave',
or
could it be that when women get together they tattled with gossip
(which
is too outrageous to believe).
Tatting
came from knotting and was used to decorate.
An
Egyptian mummy's skirt, with rings, was overlaid.
The
Chinese couched their knotting into embroideries
which
eventually found their way to European furnishings.
In
Europe, ladies, not wanting to be idle, would knot,
allowing
them to sit still and still be useful, and show off
extravagant
and expensive shuttles, gold and silken threads,
richly
adorned and bejeweled knotting bags carried with them
to
parties, the theater, and tea with their best friends.
While
the French and English nobility were knotting,
flaunting
their delicate hands, and brilliant rings,
an
Italian nun decided to make a ring from her knot string.
Thus
begins, unofficially, the art known as tatting.
Chaucer
wrote about it in his Canterbury Tales.
Sir
Charles Sedley wrote a poem,
The
Royal Knotter, about
England's Queen
who
takes her knotting on her trip to Wales
(I
made that up, but she would have if she went).
So
from couching threads to a substantial edge
for
a child's dress, or a lady's frill,
to
bonnets, caps, and handkerchiefs,
from
royalty to nunneries, tatting brings goodwill.
Once
was made of silk,
now
mostly made in cotton,
Tatting
is not a lost art.
It
has not yet been forgotten.
By:
Paula D. Nevison
(re-post from July 26,2014)
Come see me tat at the Port City Craftsmen show this weekend.
